Term For Slot Machine
Cold slot: a term used to label a certain slot machine as a slot that pays out less frequently than it should. They are also called tight slots. They are also called tight slots. Comps: Slots players who are members of loyalty or comp points programs at online casinos are collect points for each dollar they wager and receive specials for them. And at this rate of play it could take years of playing a single slot machine for the casino’s long-term advantage to become evident. Table games like black jack are not nearly as lucrative. Most people chose this as the best definition of slot: A gap between a main. See the dictionary meaning, pronunciation, and sentence examples. One Armed Bandit – A one armed bandit is a term for a slot machine with a lever on the side. Many slot machines don’t have levers now, but in the old days they all had arms on the side you had to pull down to activate the reels. One Liner or One Line Machine – A one line slot machine only has a single pay line. Slot Machine: Casino Games: Non-Rolling Chip Volume: Slot machine win per unit per day: Drop: Number of Rooms: Table Games: Fills: Paiza Cash: Table games win per unit per day: Integrated Resort: Pit Boss: Timeshare or Vacation Exchange: Marker Casino: Premium Player: Vacation Exchange and Rental Annual Rev. Per Member: Mass.
The slot machine is by far the most popular and profitable casino game, and with slot machines dominating the online, mobile, and social markets, there’s been a resurgence in interest in the one-armed bandit. This glossary covers terms used by slot players and the slot machine industry. We’ve included an example of each word used in a sentence. Newcomers to the world of slot gaming should familiarize themselves with the terms below before they head to the casino.
| 243 Ways to Win slot: | a game that doesn’t consider pay lines when determining wins and payouts. Instead, winning combinations of symbols can appear anywhere on the screen. |
“Spend a little extra time reading the pay table of that game – it’s a 243 Ways to Win slot.”
| Action: | refers to a gambler’s total amount played, plus any amount they’ve won or lost for a given session. |
“Your slot club card rewards you with comps based on your action.”
| All pays slot: | a category of games that don’t use the traditional pay line system to determine winnings. |
“If you’re bored with traditional games, look for one of the new all pays slots available online.”
| Basic slot: | games with few features, a single pay line, and a fixed top jackpot. |
“Fans of retro gaming will find themselves drawn to the classic styling of the casino’s basic slots.”
| Bet Max: | to place a wager equal to the largest possible bet for a particular slot. Many slots also have a “bet max” button on case that allows gamblers to quickly place the game’s top per-spin wager. Often required to gain access to a game’s largest payouts. |
“You can squeeze in a lot more playing time if you wager using the Bet Max button.”
| Betting unit: | refers to hitting a slot’s top-paying combination of symbols. |
“Managing your slot bankroll starts with working out how many betting units you can afford to spend per hour.”
| Big hit: | refers to hitting a slot’s top-paying combination of symbols. |
“You should have seen the slot hosts come running after Aunt Mary got that big hit.”
| Bonus feature: | a side game or other special activity distinct from a game’s regular mode. Can include things like wild symbols, scatter symbols, and free spins. |
“More and more, slot designers are producing games with skill-based bonus features.”
| Buy-a-pay slot: | a game in which each coin you wager activates a new tier of payouts. Placing the maximum number of coins leads to the largest payouts. |
“The buy-a-pay slot is the most misunderstood game on the casino floor.”
| Carousel: | a name for a group of slot machines sharing a common feature, usually denomination. |
“The first thing I look for when I walk into a new casino is a penny slot carousel.”
| CICO: (Coin In, Coin Out) | an industry term referring to the total number of credits played in and paid out of a machine. |
“You can get an idea of your total CICO for a given slot by analyzing the points on your slot club card.”
| Coins: | another term for “credits.” Slots accept credits in a variety of denominations, from a penny to five dollars and more. |
“This game’s bonus feature pays a special multiplier prize based on the total number of coins wagered.”
| Coin size: | refers to a gambler’s chosen denomination, the amount that each coin (or credit) is worth. |
“Some slots allow you to select your coin size, others set a fixed-price value for each coin.”
| Comps: | short for “compensated items,” comps are freebies given to slot players by the casino as a reward for their loyalty. Players must join a slot club and swipe their card before playing each machine in order to have their action tracked. Comps range from free drinks and room upgrades to larger prizes, depending on how much a player spends. |
“Earning slot club comps shaves a tiny fraction off the casino’s built-in advantage.”
| Console slot: | games with built-in features designed to be more comfortable for the player. These days, console slots have screens which can be placed in different angles, built-in seats, and customizable brightness settings. |
“Grandma said she prefers to play the console slots, even though they’re a little more expensive.”
| Credits: | another word for “coins.” When gamblers insert a $20 bill in a slot machine, that cash is converted into credits, based on the coin size of the game. |
“Fifty credits per spin is too rich for my blood.”
| Denomination: | the value of each credit. Some games feature fixed credit values, others allow you to choose your denomination. |
“The only benefit to using a higher denomination is a larger set of possible payouts.”
| Double symbol: | a symbol (or set of symbols) that doubles a payout when it’s part of a winning combination. Triple symbols are also common. |
“Slots that use double symbols and triple symbols are perceived as more exciting than slots that don’t.”
| Fixed-value slot: | games in which the betting amount and/or coin size cannot be altered. Some of these games allow for multiple credit wagers, which gives the player some control over the size of each spin. |
“Fixed-value slots make it easier to manage your slot bankroll, though they limit your options as a player.”
| Free spin: | a bonus feature in which the player earns one free round of play. |
“Wouldn’t you know it – I spent all that cash and then finally hit a jackpot during a free spin.”
| Fruit machine: | UK slang term for slot machine. Most games of this type are basic slots with few features. |
“I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the classic fruit machines found in British pubs.”
| Hit frequency: | a theoretical number referring to how often a given slot machine pays out a prize of any amount, relative to the total number of games played. |
| Hold percentage: | a theoretical number that refers to the amount of a player’s money a slot machine retains. |
“Theoretically, a machine programmed to have a 95% hold percentage will keep 5% of all the money a player feeds into it.”
| Jackpot: | either the highest-value prize paid out by a given slot machine, or (used more generically) any prize paid out by a machine. |
“You have to bet five coins per spin to gain access to the jackpot – it’s a buy-a-pay slot.”
| Line bet: | the number of active pay lines on a given multi-payline slot. |
“I try to always place a max line bet on progressive slots.”
| Linked progressive slot: | a slot that pays out an ever-increasing top prize connected to a network of two or more games. These games produce larger progressive jackpots because more players are paying into them. |
“Linked progressive slots are placed prominently on the casino floor to attract attention.”
| Low-level slot: | any game that includes a built-in seat or chair. |
“You don’t find nearly as many low-level slots in Atlantic City as you do in Las Vegas.”
| Multiplier: | a specific type of bonus slot feature where a payout is increased, usually between 2x and 10x. |
“I like this slot’s multiplier feature – I just wish it came up more often.”
| Near-miss: | player slang for a result that’s incredibly close to a payout. |
“I needed five cherry symbols for the jackpot, and only got four. Talk about a near-miss.”
| Nudge slot: | games that include a particular bonus feature in which near-miss combinations are occasionally bumped into a winning combo. |
“Nudge slots are exciting because it seems like you win more often, even though the odds are adjusted to take the nudge effect into account.”
| One-armed-bandit: | popular slang for a slot machine. |
“I got robbed by the one-armed bandit all weekend.”
| Payback percentage: | a theoretical number that refers to the amount of money a particular slot machine will return to a player. Because this number is based on an infinite number of wagers, it should be used only as a guide. |
“Progressive slots and games with lots of bonus features generally have a lower payback percentage than traditional slots.”
| Pay line: | an invisible line that moves across the reels of a slot. Winning combinations only pay out prizes when they appear on one of these invisible lines. Must be activated by the player, usually with a wager. Sometimes spelled “payline.” |
“If I had all fifty pay lines activated, that last win would have paid my mortgage for six months.”
| Payout: | the amount paid by a slot for a specific combination of symbols. Sometimes spelled “pay out.” |
“Reading a slot’s pay table is a simple matter of finding a winning combination and reading the payout listed next to it.”
| Pay table: | a chart posted on the slot machine’s case (or on the display) that indicates the payout for various winning combinations, as well as any specific game or bonus rules. |
“You can tell how much variance a slot has by reading its pay table and comparing the payouts to one another.”
| Penny slot: | a slot which accepts pennies as its basic denomination. Because of the cost of activating multiple pay lines, most modern penny slots don’t really cost $0.01 per spin. |
“If you don’t have a lot of money to waste, there’s a penny slot on the casino floor with your name on it.”
| Pokie: | Australian slang term for “slot machine.” |
“When he called the slot machine a ‘pokie,’ I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.”
| Progressive slot: | a game with an ever-increasing jackpot built from tiny portions of all the wagers played into it. |
“This progressive slot has been taking my money for years – maybe today’s my lucky day.”
| Real stop slot: | a game that allows players to skill-stop each reel, one at a time. Rare on casino floors these days. |
“The reel stop slots of the 1970s added a new skill dimension to slot play, but weren’t all that popular with players because of their reduced payouts and small jackpots.”
| Reels: | refers to the sets of symbols that spin and stop to determine winning combinations. |
“Old-school slot machines had just three reels, while most modern games have five or more sets of spinning symbols.”
| RNG: (Random Number Generator) | a piece of software that produces random numbers within a certain range. Used by modern slot machines to randomize results. |
“The use of Random Number Generator software gave game designers the freedom to produce increasingly complicated and feature-laden slots. “
| Scatter symbol: | a symbol that doesn’t have to appear in any specific combination or on any specific reels or lines in order to trigger a bonus feature. |
“Usually, a specific number of scatter symbols must appear to trigger a bonus or prize.”
| Second-screen bonus: | an industry term that refers to video slot game features that take place on a separate screen from the standard slot game. |
“Modern licensed games depend on video scenes and second-screen bonus games to attract players familiar with the brand.”
| Short win: | refers to hitting a combination that should lead to a huge jackpot, but doesn’t because of a low-credit or low-denomination wager. |
“Sure, you can play nickel slots for a nickel per spin, but all your jackpots will be short wins.”
| Slot club: | member’s-only programs offered by casinos to track their play in exchange for comps and other rewards. |
“Joining the slot club won’t cost you a thing and could lead to some nice freebies.”
| Slot host: | a casino employee whose job it is to assist serving customers at slot machines. Usually performs all necessary hand-pays. |
“Tipping your slot host after a big win is considered proper etiquette – how much you tip is up to you.”
| Slot machine: | a gambling game that pays prizes based on random combinations of symbols. |
“The slot machine is America’s greatest contribution to the world of gambling.”
| Slot tournament: | an event that brings slots players together to compete for a set of specific prizes on a pool of specific games. |
“I love this casino’s promotions – especially the weekly $10,000 slot tournament.”
| Spin: | refers to one round of slot machine play. |
“As a low-roller, I’m most comfortable betting about $0.50 per spin.”
| Symbols: | images on the reels of a slot machine that must be lined up in various combinations to win. Can be anything – traditional symbols include fruit, numbers, and playing cards. |
“The best symbol on this game is the game’s logo itself, which acts as a scatter and a wild at the same time.”
| Tilt: | a slot malfunction that usually requires the attention of a host and possibly a mechanic. |
“I was in a good rhythm and then the machine tilted and I had to switch games.”
| TITO: (Ticket In, Ticket Out) | refers to a specific type of slot game that prints a ticket with your winning amount when you cash out. Can then be inserted in a different machine to continue playing. Most modern casinos have switched to the use of plastic cards rather than tickets. |
“You wouldn’t believe how many people leave behind tickets in TITO slots.”
| Total bet: | refers to the total number of credits multiplied by the chosen denomination. |
Another Term For Slot Machines
“I was betting a nickel per credit and betting the fifty pay line max, for a total bet of $2.50 per spin.”
| Video slots: | refers to a category of slot games that use a video screen to display virtual reels. The vast majority of slots on modern casino floors are video slots. |
“You hardly ever see anything but video slots these days – but I miss the spinning reels of the basic slots.”
| Wide-area progressive: | games with ever-increasing jackpots, linked between different online or land-based casinos. They the largest of all possible progressive payouts, since a huge number of people are paying into their jackpots. |
“The largest jackpot in Vegas history was won on a wide-area progressive slot machine.”
Get 50 free spins on this slots at
Get 100 free spins on this slots at
5 Reels, 30 Payline
Basic Machines
Machines with a simple, straightforward payout scheme. Examples: Double Jackpots, Crazy Doublers, Double Diamonds, Mag Sevens, Black Golds, Ten Grands, Blazing Sevens, Flaming Sevens, Home Runs, Red White Blues.
Big Bertha
An oversized machine from the electro-mechanical slots era, characterized by a huge handle, and containing eight to ten reels.
Bonus Feature
Free spins and/or a bonus round available on some machines.
Bonus Multiplier Slots
Machines offering proportionally larger top jackpots when you play max coins. The top jackpot symbol, (usually 7s) pays when max coins are deposited.
Buy-your-Pay
Each coin triggers a specific symbol payout. For example, one coin might trigger cherries to pay while two coins might trigger cherries and bars to pay, and three coins might trigger cherries, bars and 7s to pay.
Carousel
A group of interlinked slot machines, sometimes on a round platform in the middle of the casino floor.
Coins Size
Coin size is a unit of measure, the denomination or the value of each coin that the machine accepts. If the machine accepts quarters, then the coin size is 25¢ regardless of the number of coins you bet.
Computer Selection Table
The table in the computer chip that contains all possible symbol combinations and provides the designated payout percentage. The spinning reels are simply a visual enhancement; the computer table determines the outcome of each spin.
Credit Meter
Tallies the credits earned rather than dropping coins in the tray after each win.
Double Machines
When designated symbols line up, double machines pay double or triple winnings.
Doubler
A machine that pays double winnings if a designated symbol lands in conjunction with other paying symbols.
Down Slot
The machine has a low average payout.
Slang Words For Slot Machines
Drop Through
A coin that drops through to the tray without registering before the spin. Drop throughs can result in a player mistakenly playing fewer than max coins.
Fill
A full hopper.
Full Pay Machines
Machines paying a larger payoff for full-coin pay.
Hopper
The location inside the machine where the money is stored.
Jackpots
The largest prize at any given slot machine.
Liberty Bell
An early slot machine invented by Charles Fey.
Loose Slots
Machines with a higher payoff.
Low Level
Slot machines where players can sit and play.
Max Bet
The maximum number of coins allowed on each spin. Often, you must play the max bet on a machine to qualify for the jackpot.
Mills Slots
The predecessor to modern slots: the first to use standard fruit symbols, the first with a jackpot’invention credited to Charles Fey.
Multi-Line
Slot machines with two or more pay lines.
Multiplier Slots
Machines that pay on a graduated scale. For example, a winner plays one coin and receives 5 coins, pays 2 coins and receives 10 or more coins, etc.
Near Misses
One-half turn of one reel away from a jackpot. The computer selection table can include many near misses for each actual jackpot hit.
Number of Coins Bet
The number of coins bet is always a multiple of the coin size For example, if you’re playing a 25¢ machine and you deposit three quarters or in any manner bet 75¢ on a spin, your number of coins bet is three.
One-Armed Bandit
Popular slang for slot machine.
Onesies
Slot players who bet one coin per spin.
Patterns
Random short-term statistical trends, not to be confused with long-term statistical averages. The short-term trend may be better or worse than the long-term average.
Pay Cycle
The commonly held belief that slot machines run on pay cycles: after taking a certain amount of money, the machine pays out a certain amount of money. This is why people look for a machine that hasn’t ‘hit’ for a period of time. In reality, slot machines pay out on a percentage basis over a long period of time, typically up to one year, not in short-term cycles.
Pay For Play Machines
Slot machines with the option of playing 1-3 coins. Winnings are proportionally higher for each additional coin after the first coin (called a staggered payout).
Pay Line
Usually the line in the center in the window, the line on which the designated symbols must align in order to receive a payout. Some machines have multiple pay lines.
Pay Table
The pay table is the section of the slot machine (usually at the top) that lists all pertinent information about payoffs. It includes the payoffs for each winning combination; any bonus features, and if the max coin bet pays any bonus. Payouts are quoted in number of coins.
Payback
The winnings a machine pays out in relation to the amount of money put in, stated as a percentage.
Payout Percentage
The percentage that the slot machine returns to the player, often calculated over a year’s time.
Primary Jackpot
The big jackpot for any machine’rarely hit.
Progressive
Slots offering the largest jackpots. Machines have a base jackpot figure which grows with each coin played. After a jackpot is won, the machine is reset to the base jackpot.
Progressive Jackpot
The top jackpot that grows progressively as more coins are dropped into the machine. Machines are sometimes linked together among several casinos to form a larger combined jackpot.
Progressive Slots
A linked group of slots with a growing common jackpot. The amount of the jackpot depends on the amount of money played in all machines. When a jackpot is won, the jackpot is reset to the low jackpot, where it begins to accumulate again with each coin played.
Reels
Three or more rotating barrels with symbols. The object is to line up the symbols in a winning pattern.
RNG
Random Number Generator. Computerized slots are programmed by the manufacturer to randomly select numbers on a continuous basis whether the machine is in play or standing idle. Each number corresponds to a pattern of symbols, with the fewest numbers corresponding to jackpots. The same chip that generates the numbers is programmed with the slot’s average payout, and determines the generated numbers based on the average payout.
Session
A defined period of time to play the slots or to play on one slot machine, rather than endless play with no built-in goals or stop loss.
Short Win
Large jackpot won in a short period of time with a small cash outlay.
Sizzling Slot
A slot with a high payoff.
Slot Placement
The physical location of slot machines, usually mixing tight slots and loose slots, and often placing loose slots in high-traffic locations.
Slot Schedule
Information, such as type of slot, coin denomination and winning amounts, posted on the front of each slot machine.
Slot Testing
System used by slot players. Slot testers play a single roll of coins all the way through without taking any winnings in an attempt to determine the possible payout for the machine.
Slot Types
Two major types: basic, straight, or flat-top, which pays out a static top jackpot, and progressive, which pays out a dynamic jackpot, dependent on coins taken in by a group of linked machines.
Slot-Mix
Mixing loose slots and tight slots according to a slot placement plan. Loose slots are often placed in high-traffic locations to tempt casino patrons and encourage play.
Slots Drop
Amount of money dropped into the slot.
Slots Hold
The opposite of slot payout; this is the percentage that the house keeps.
Sound of Rain
The sound of coins dropping after a payout.
Sputtering Slot
Slot with a low average payout.
Stand Up
Slots that require players to stand while playing.
Static
A jackpot that is pre-determined and does not change.
Straight Slots
Machines that pay out fixed amounts that are posted on the front of the machine.
Symbols
The images on the reel. Symbols can be anything, but often include cherries, lemons and 7s.
Take Cycle
The opposite of a pay cycle’the belief that the machine will not pay out until taking in a predetermined amount of coins.
Tight Slots
Machines with lower payouts.
Tilt
When a slot machine locks up due to a malfunction, the tilt light illuminates, and an attendant resets the machine. The machine has run out of coins, a coin has jammed, or the hopper is full. If you deposited money or if you won money, the machine has a memory, and the attendant will ensure that you get your winning or get your coin back.
Up Slot
The machine has a high average payout.
Video Machines
A slot machine using video to simulate spinning reels.
Well
The container at the bottom of the machine where winning coins fall.
Wild Symbol
The slot machine equivalent of a joker symbol in cards.